Kami Burns’ Blog

i am terrible at remembering jokes. i have a pretty vast collection of anti-UGA jokes and that’s about it. in mexican culture, there’s a style of joke which i’d compare to a knock-knock joke in english, that has the same format every time, so i’ve managed to remember 3 or 4 of those. it basically goes like this…”act 1 – ____, act 2 – ____, act 3 – ______. what’s the name of the play?” we’re not talking about the highest level of humor here, but they are jokes that i can remember. i will spare you the less funny translated version, but suffice it to say that my favorite joke involves the beginning of “circle of life” from the lion king which you will find below for your viewing pleasure. i’ve told it probably a dozen times at el pozo, including the last two weeks at en vivo and i’m actually scheduled to tell it again tomorrow night during heath’s talk during which i’m sure the students will laugh hysterically as usual.

when we first started talking about creating an event to build community with all the first and second year students that are new to el pozo, we couldn’t come up with a name. we googled every campus ministry we could think of, but fresh party, freshman throwdown, or other more churchy-sounding names just didn’t translate into el pozo lingo the way we liked. elsa came up with the name “lunada” for our monthly worship event, but she was drawing a blank when it came to coming up with a name for this event. we thought about calling up our friend cody spencer, who so eloquently crafted “miercomida”, pozomida’s ancestor whose name combined the spanish words for wednesday and lunch.

but last week, after much contemplation, we decided to name this new monday-night event after my favorite joke…”primer acto” (act 1) is making it’s debut at el pozo tonight (monday) and we’re so excited to see how it goes! this semester we’ve had tons of new students get involved, and the idea of having another opportunity to share the gospel with them each week and get them growing in their relationships with God and with each other makes me start dreaming big about el pozo’s future, when these new people are a core group of leaders who have been sharing their lives and their walks with jesus for years.

last thursday at lunch, i was talking to one of the girls who has been coming to el pozo this semester, and just out of curiosity, i asked her what year she was in school and she said, “2nd….so i’m still young enough for primer acto!”. yesterday i ran into a girl on campus as i was walking to the university’s musical (to see many of this year’s new students who study theater and dance) and she said, “you’ll have to tell me about the musical tomorrow night at primer acto!”. students are looking forward to this night, to bringing their friends and to building relationships with other people who are new to college and to el pozo.

haru and irma, 2nd and 1st year basketball players from UDLA who LOVE el pozo

theater and dance kids who started coming to el pozo thanks to our awesome exchange students!

say a prayer for primer acto tonight, for the (hopefully) numerous students who will be part of it, and the staff that is leading the event…we’re still being propelled forward by the energy of last weekend’s retreat, and i think so many of the young new faces at el pozo will be staying around for years to come because we’ll be getting one more encounter with them each week! pray that it becomes an event that fosters not only community but spiritual growth among our youngest students and that they realize through this event that el pozo is a home for them.

much love – kami

normally monday mornings i’m feeling pretty well-rested after a sunday of church, a big meal, and watching football, but today i’m exhausted in the best possible way…because we just got back from our ministry’s trip to la malinche, one of the 4 big mountains that we get to see every day living here in cholula.

la malinche and the cabins at the park where we stayed

40 students, along with our staff, interns, and world class retreat speaker jeremy lawler, on loan from georgia tech ccf, left cholula on friday afternoon. last week, i was pretty bummed because several of the students who i have been most excited about this semester were realizing they weren’t going to be able to go. the UDLA basketball teams have been so involved with our ministry this semester and had games all weekend. theater and dance kids have been filling up our thursday lunch events, but because of the play they have this upcoming weekend, they had rehearsals scheduled for this past weekend. my penny-pinching instincts as el pozo’s new finance person started flaring up when i thought about us losing money for having rented too many cabins, not being able to fill up our charter bus, etc.

i didn’t have many responsibilities for planning the retreat thanks to courtney, elsa, and rada who had taken care of everything, but on friday, one of my jobs was to sign people in and take their money. suddenly, a group of 4 girls showed up and said they wanted to go. i had only ever seen one of them before. another girl who had decided to go even though she doesn’t know many people asked if she could bring a friend. people came out of the woodwork and filled our trip right up.

new friends to el pozo!

retreats exist for one main purpose in campus ministry – to build community. and community was definitely built this weekend. each session we had with worship and a talk, i looked around and saw students sitting with other people they didn’t come with, people who they had never spoken to before this weekend. our leaders reached out to new people. our exchange students made new friends and connected their friends to a community that will last long past when they head back to the states in december.

when we came back yesterday, students hung around el pozo for the rest of the day. no one wanted the weekend to end…they even invited friends who hadn’t gone on the trip to come to el pozo and hang out with the new friends they’d made. when i finally got on my computer to catch up on email, i had several new friend requests on facebook – people i’d met from the weekend. ali is a girl who’d come with several of her roommates (all of whom had been dragged by one roommate who came to el pozo for the first time last week). she seemed distant at first when they arrived on friday, but she and i had talked a good bit at the campfire on saturday night, so i wasn’t surprised to see her friend request. i clicked accept, and when i saw her profile for the first time, i was reminded why we go through all the stress and exhaustion of a retreat…

“this was the most amazing weekend ever. i learned a lot of new things, and made me change a lot about the way i used to think, so i’m glad that God gave me this chance…”

worth it? i think so. each time i yawn today i’ll thank God for ali and for the 39 other students like her who had an amazing weekend. i’m excited to see the story that God is writing in these students’ lives and how the next chapter of el pozo’s story was written this weekend on a trip to la malinche.

keep your eye on el pozo’s facebook page for pictures of the whole weekend, and keep these students in your prayers as we follow up with them this week, getting them involved in our events, small groups, and service. thanks for praying for el pozo and for the retreat and know that God is at work here in cholula in big ways.

now for another cup of coffee. much love – kami

at en vivo each week at el pozo, we pass around a “luchador mask”, the masks that wrestlers wear here in mexico. inside the luchador mask are pencils and little pieces of paper for students to write down their prayer requests. “luchar” means “to wrestle” en español, so we ask students to write down the things they are “wrestling with”. we tell them each week that they can write whatever they want, that they can write their name if they want or they don’t have to, but that they can be sure that our staff will be praying for them. and that we do.

we get all sorts of prayer requests. last year we were asked to pray that the UDLAP aztecas football team would win the national championship…and they did! i hope God didn’t have to turn his head away from other, bigger world issues for too long to make that one happen! we pray for sick people, for tests, for homesickness, for traveling mercies, and for the students to grow closer to God.

each week ever since we started passing around the prayer mask, we have gotten a request from one of our student leaders. she has been dating a guy for 6 years who isn’t a christian. he comes to our ministry as well, and is a gifted athlete, a natural leader, and fascinated with the concepts of personal growth and leadership. what he’s been missing all along is faith in jesus.

so each week, when we read those little folded up pieces of paper, we find a note written in the same handwriting…pray that he can have faith in God, that he will encounter God, that God will work in his heart. i’m pretty close to this girl…she’s broken up with him before because she wants to marry a christian man, but she knows she loves him. my heart has ached for her…she’s asked me to join with her in praying that God will either change his heart or take him away from her. (i added “or give her the strength to let him go”) and so that’s what she and i and our staff have prayed, that seemingly against all odds, that God would work a miracle in this guy’s life.

so on tuesday night, an emotional night for our community as we said goodbye to the mcdades, imagine the tears that came into my eyes when he walked into the kitchen as we’re washing dishes and said, “kami and courtney, be here on sunday night at 7pm.” i said, “sure….but why?” and my dear friend said, “i’m getting baptized!”

so that’s what happened last night…i can’t imagine a better way to send nathan and erin back to the states than by God showing us all that el pozo is his, and that he is working in the hearts of these students, and by celebrating the new life in jesus christ of one of our students.

giving his confession of faith!

getting dunked!

dead to sin, alive in christ

tomorrow’s prayer mask just won’t be the same without abi asking for prayer for pako…but i’ll definitely be thanking God for answering this prayer of abi’s and of our community. today, i’m praying big prayers for el pozo, for the students and the community, because if i had any doubt, last night i was reminded that God DOES answer our prayers. join with me…pray for our upcoming retreat (not this upcoming weekend but the next), for our students, and for God to do big things through this community as we reach the halfway point of the semester and begin a new chapter of el pozo’s story as we said “hasta luego” to the mcdades today. el pozo has momentum right now…and we want to keep it up! thank you for your prayers, your support, and your love of el pozo!

much love – kami